Command to rebuild applicationHost.config in IIS 7

Question

Is there a way to rebuild the applicationHost.config file in IIS 7 with a Windows command? Or if you can help me fix the issue by modifying this file, that's fine too. When comparing this file to other servers, I'm noticing very important sections that are missing or different after deleting a site and a few application pools.

I am by no means an expert in IIS 7, but I've been using it for 7 years now. I am confident have performed all of the proper steps for a new site configuration and it still gives me this error, "401.1 "You are not authorized to view this page. You do not have permission to view this directory or page using the credentials that you supplied."

C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\config\applicationHost.config

This happened on a machine where IIS APPPOOL{app pool user} doesn't exist, so we've never used this user, like I normally do when configuring permissions. We did however add proper permissions to IIS_IUSRS (with IUSR in this group) last week, and the site worked fine. We're using Windows Authentication, and all other authentication methods are turned off. No virtual directories. We are using .NET 4.0, Classic, and 32 bit app (under advanced settings).

We had to manually update the host name by doing the following command in "C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv" on the binding because IIS would grey out the host name when the VeriSign SSL certificate was added to the binding.

appcmd set site /site.name:"himc" /+bindings.[protocol='https',bindingInformation='*:443:subdomain.domain.com']

Missing sections on "bad" web server:

1 - exists on "good" box, missing on "bad" box

<customMetadata>
    <key path="LM/W3SVC/INFO">
        <property id="4012" dataType="String" userType="1" attributes="Inherit" value="NCSA Common Log File Format,Microsoft IIS Log File Format,W3C Extended Log File Format,ODBC Logging" />
        <property id="2120" dataType="MultiSZ" userType="1" attributes="None" value="400,0,,,0&#xA;" />
    </key>
</customMetadata>

2 - exists on "good" box, missing on "bad" box

    <asp>
        <cache diskTemplateCacheDirectory="%SystemDrive%\inetpub\temp\ASP Compiled Templates" />
    </asp>

3 - this section exists on the "good" box, but only 2.0 (first 2 lines) exist on the "bad" box.

<isapiFilters>
    <filter name="ASP.Net_2.0.50727.0" path="%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\aspnet_filter.dll" enableCache="true" preCondition="bitness32,runtimeVersionv2.0" />
    <filter name="ASP.Net_2.0.50727-64" path="%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v2.0.50727\aspnet_filter.dll" enableCache="true" preCondition="bitness64,runtimeVersionv2.0" />
    <filter name="ASP.Net_2.0_for_V1.1" path="%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\aspnet_filter.dll" enableCache="true" preCondition="runtimeVersionv1.1" />
    <filter name="ASP.Net_4.0_64bit" path="C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\aspnet_filter.dll" enableCache="true" preCondition="runtimeVersionv4.0,bitness64" />
    <filter name="ASP.Net_4.0_32bit" path="C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\aspnet_filter.dll" enableCache="true" preCondition="runtimeVersionv4.0,bitness32" />
</isapiFilters>

4 - this section exists on "bad" box, but is missing on the "good" box

    <applicationDependencies>
        <application name="Active Server Pages" groupId="ASP" />
    </applicationDependencies>

5 - ssiExecDisable property is missing on "good" box

    <serverSideInclude ssiExecDisable="false" />

6 - section missing on "bad" box

        <authentication>
            <anonymousAuthentication enabled="false" />
            <windowsAuthentication enabled="true" />
        </authentication>

score 72 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 13 '13 at 17:41

72

Apparently, Microsoft keeps a history of these files in:

C:\inetpub\history\

answered Feb 13 '13 at 17:41

JustBeingHelpful

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also helpful.. http://serverfault.com/questions/96669/recovering-files-from-iis-system-inetsrv-directory – JustBeingHelpful Jul 22 '13 at 16:33
Using this history folder doesn't always work. If you need to uninstall IIS, use this one .. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17792419/iis-7-configuration-file-is-not-well-formed-xml/17792990#17792990 – JustBeingHelpful Jul 22 '13 at 16:45
supplemental question that gave me detail for last comment.. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8321072/is-there-a-way-to-reset-iis-7-5-to-factory-settings – JustBeingHelpful Jul 22 '13 at 16:46
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Plus 1 for being MacGyver – Fabio Milheiro Apr 14 '15 at 08:55
You couldn't have another name! I really hope that it is your real one, you deserve it! Thank you @MacGyver! – Rafael Araújo Jun 21 '19 at 20:42

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 16 '17 at 15:30

Do a backup of all config files first!

So apparently, IIS keeps a history of the config files in C:\inetpub\history. So what you need to do is remember the last known date IIS worked fine and then copy the contents of the config file from c:\inetpub\history and replace config files in c:\windows\system32\inetsrv\config.

Good luck!

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 12 '14 at 15:24

1

If you just want to modify currently active applicationHost.config take a look at this article:

Editing Applicationhost.config on 64 bit Win2008

As the article says, for some reason applicationHost.config is visible only using Explorer (which explains why I wasn't seeing file from my custom file manager) and you can edit it without problems using Notepad (again, any other editor and you'll run into problems).

answered Aug 12 '14 at 15:24

nikib3ro

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Point your custom file manager at `c:\windows\sysnative\inetsrv`; I bet it's not 64-bit. – Barry Kelly Oct 03 '14 at 01:58

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 11 '19 at 11:50

To install a backup of an older configuration, you can use the command:

c:\windows\system32\inetsrv\appcmd restore backup CFXHISTORY_xxxxxxxx

where CFXHISTORY_xxxxxxxx is a sub folder of C:\inetpub\history\.

Not sure what the command does besides copying files from that folder to the current configuration, but you should probably use it in case it does do something special.

Or you can just copy the file from the backup as explained in https://stackoverflow.com/a/14859645/2279059

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 18 '17 at 21:11

0

The inetpub history folder saved my butt. I simply restored the two files in the root folder and wallah problem solved.

answered Jan 18 '17 at 21:11

Michael Birnholz

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